Lionel Messi - v7

[Birdy]

He was abysmal today.
No other word to describe it.
Doing his thing all the time. Failing all the time, and still staying in.
While Dembele did it 2-3 times in the first half, and then he was immediately off..

Even people defending him are starting to wonder:

Does anyone else think we might play better without messi? Not trying to flame or anything, but there was a stretch of 10 mins in the 2nd half with little Messi involvement and we looked REALLY good

 

[Alik]

As BBZ said, give Puig or Ansu 100 attempts to do something and they will provide the same number of chances. Messi does not score at all. His job as arguably the best goalscorer of all time is to score fucking goals. He takes a shitton of shots in every game. He is holding the team back atm.

That's nonsense.

 

[serghei]

I am not sure why should he play upfront.
He has 39 shots this season for Barca and 3 penaldo goals.

So, 36 shots.
I don't know whether Whoscored is counting free kicks as shooting attempts.

What will happen with Messi upfront?
He is slow, he doesn't move off the ball, he is dispossessed all the time and he hasn't scored for 10 matches in a row.

Man you know I wanted him gone. But if you are to use him somewhere, that's where he should play. RW is ideal position for him, a RW that plays inside a lot, like a Villa. It doesn't even matter if he's not fast and can't fly past opponents anymore. RW brings him two great things no other position can. More space (teams usually defend more the center, and leave wide spaces more free), and more time on his left foot.

 

[Raketa10]

He can get the most out of his last years if he learns to be patient, and get used to having minutes without touching the ball. Trust his teammates, work to find spaces as advanced as possible. Stay away from super-heavy traffic which all teams block like crazy these days with 4-5 men. Drift a bit wide. He had a crazy good action a bit on the right with a prime-reminding dribble. His area is still right side forward. Even his shot came from there.

All that talk that he drops because nobody can create is bullshit. At some point he was going into Pjanic bothering him with his position, and that was while Pjanic was running hot pulling the strings. It's clear he doesn't want to give up his role as a playmaker, even though he is not a very good playmaker anymore.

That touch he missed at Pjanic's pass. That's Messi losing the touch of a forward. He needs to get that back or nothing will improve. A player of his quality should always shoot on target from that.

+1

 

[te amo barca]

I agree that his efficiency is much lower, but its still the best opportunity. All this talk of how Messi shouldn't drop back and stick to his position would just result in another impotent sterile performance from Barca.

This squad isn't good enough and built well to allow that.

Disagree. As people said, we looked better in that short stretch of the game without his involvement today. The tempo slows down too much when he's on the ball in the middle of the pitch. I hope he doesn't renew.

 

[malvolio]

I agree that his efficiency is much lower, but its still the best opportunity. All this talk of how Messi shouldn't drop back and stick to his position would just result in another impotent sterile performance from Barca.

This squad isn't good enough and built well to allow that.

people fail to understand this and think we have some players that are just intimidated by messi. otherwise griezmann would be platini, dembele would be henry, trincao - figo and fati - eto'o.

at this point i would really like for him to get injured or something, just to see this miracle squad we have when messi is not there.

 

[serghei]

There is little doubt that if you replace Messi with say a Rashford you'd improve the team after a run of 10-12 months. You'd be improving in speed, goals, cohesiveness, hard work, positioning, nearly on everything except some genius plays here and there.

 

[Birdy]

None of them are any consistent at creating anything. Pedri has shown a bit and so has Fati, but they are young and still not too consistent.

Given how slow this team is and its lack of true world class wingers as well as a striker, Messi is really the best option. He isn't efficient, but its our the best chance. All the other options just don't have enough output.

This is the most ridiculous argument to defend.
You are deluded and biased to the core.
Wake up and start watching the actual game, instead of projecting your fantasies on reality

 

[Porque]

He needs a goal from open play and a hug from Suarez.

Preferably the same night, so just two more weeks to wait.

 

[feggydinho]

I agree that his efficiency is much lower, but its still the best opportunity. All this talk of how Messi shouldn't drop back and stick to his position would just result in another impotent sterile performance from Barca.

This squad isn't good enough and built well to allow that.

Let's not deceive ourselves, bench Messi and try to work without him and you would see a change. We're still trying to make the play round an aging Messi, it was horrible to watch today (I had to do something else). I hope they don't extend his contract with what I've been watching. We're currently taking 12th in La-Liga, so it's not even more of a team problem again cause we can't have the 12th worst team in the league.

 

[Morten]

At this point, playing him as a number 9 would be a mistake, this isnt 2012 anymore, he doesnt have those extreme attributes to do that role anymore.

He is now better as a creator than as a striker, so if he is going to play, he should play his current role, number 10.

 

[te amo barca]

That's nonsense.

Disagree. His efficiency rate is actually abysmal, it's segunda level after the coronabreak. No team can win consistently with its focal player misplacing so many passes, losing the ball so many times while dribbling and not scoring from open play and freekicks. Do not get me started on his shit workrate and not defending at all.

 

[Total-Football]

Messi never had the makings of a varsity athlete. Always try to rely on his touch. NOT ENOUGH

 

[Raketa10]

He can't be the focal point of EVERY fucking attack. It's simple, he needs to be a part of the team. Every single ball has to go through his feet and that needs to stop ASAP! It's unbelievably easy to defend against us when we are playing like we did today.

 

[feggydinho]

There is little doubt that if you replace Messi with say a Rashford you'd improve the team after a run of 10-12 months. You'd be improving in speed, goals, cohesiveness, hard work, positioning, nearly on everything except some genius plays here and there.

We would have to do without the genius plays here and there, cause we need to build a functioning team right now